Product Application:

 P965 Motherboard

Product Provided by:

 Gigabyte

Available at:

 NewEgg.com

Estimated MSRP:

$171.99 - $229.99

Availability:

Now

Review by:

 Michael

Edited by:

 Paul

Review date:

 June 10th, 2007

 
 

 

Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6
revision 2.0

    Reviews are already starting to pop up covering the new Intel P35 chipset. The PC market is always moving forward, after all, and Intel will have to support their newest line of processors which will have a 1333 MHz Front Side Bus. Many overclockers have been running a 1333 FSB (or higher) for quite some time now. So for many folks, it will be time to get rid of the old to make room for the new. But while all this is happening, the mature chipsets that have already been proven as performance monsters, have been given some small tweaks both by Intel and individual vendors. Once such product is the 965P-DQ6 from Gigabyte. The official model number is the GA-965P-DQ6 2.0 which is the second revision in an already established and quite reputable overclockers motherboard.

     While there are a large group of enthusiasts who spare no expense to jump on the latest and greatest, there are just as many that prefer to stay one generation behind. While the purchase prices are certainly lower too, buyers can move into an upgrade with an already established reputation and support base. Chances are all the bugs are are fixed with the latest BIOS', driver support is rock solid, and forums on all the major hardware sites will already have threads dedicated to overclocking settings.

     Features and Specifications......


Processor
  1. Supports Intel® Core™2 Extreme Quad-Core / Core™2 Duo / Intel® Pentium® Extreme/ Intel® Pentium® D processors
  2. Supports 1066/800/533 MHz FSB

Chipset
  1. Northbridge: Intel® P965 Express Chipset
  2. Southbridge: Intel® ICH8R
  3. Gigabit LAN Controller (Marvell 8056)
  4. Realtek ALC888DD Channel Audio Codec

Memory
  1. Supports DDR2 800/667/533 memory
  2. Dual Channel architecture support up to 8GB by 4 DIMM slots
* Due to standard PC architecture, a certain amount of memory is reserved for system usage and therefore the actual memory size is less than the stated amount.

Expansion Slots
  1. 2 PCI Express X16 slot(x16, x4)
  2. 3 PCI Express X1 slots
  3. 2 PCI slots
Form Factor
  1. ATX form factor, 305 x 244mm


Internal I/O Connectors
  1. 8 Serial ATA 3Gb/s connector
  2. 1 UDMA ATA 100/66/33 connector
  3. 1 FDD connector
  4. 3 USB 2.0/1.1 connectors (support 6 ports)
  5. 1 audio pin header (support 8-Channel)
  6. 1 S/PDIF In pin header
  7. 2 IEEE1394 connector
  8. 1 Chassis Intrusion connector


Rear Panel I/O
  1. 4 USB 2.0/1.1 ports
  2. 1 RJ45 port
  3. 1 COM port
  4. 1 LPT port
  5. 6 audio jacks
  6. 1 IEEE1394
  7. 1 Optical SPDIF OUT
  8. 1 Coaxial SPDIF OUT
  9. PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse

BIOS
  1. 1 4 Mbit flash ROM
  2. Use of licensed AWARD BIOS
  3. Supports Virtual Dual BIOS
  4. PnP 1.0a, DMI 2.0, SM BIOS 2.3, ACPI 1.0b.

Unique Features
  1. Durability Enhanced- All Solid Capacitor Motherboard
  2. Silent Pipe Cooling
  3. Over-clocking Enhanced

     Like most 965 motherboards, the DQ6 revision 2 has no official support for a 1333Mhz CPU. However, we'll see in our BIOS pictures that the FSB is possible, and that there are enough memory dividers to make the FSB very useable.